Keep a question beside the title
A reading list becomes more useful when each title has a reason for being there: a question, a contrast or a subject to trace.
Independent notebook
The Open Reading Desk
Reading lists, marginal notes and public-domain discoveries.
Short works reward rereading
An essay revisited after a few months often reveals its structure more clearly than it did during the first pass.
Margins are a private index
A date, a symbol and a few words can preserve the path of an argument without turning the page into a transcript.
Translate the context too
When comparing translations, introductions and notes can explain choices that the translated sentence alone cannot show.